Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In the Book of Kings, the Bible tells the story of Zadok, a priest, and Nathan, a prophet, who anointed Solomon king. For so much of history monarchs have derived their power and authority from that idea, that idea of divine right, that, anointed by God, their rule is legitimate. But this was always a structure of power with the deep flaw of placing all power in the hands of, and at the whim of, one single human ruler. Indeed, even at a time when all-powerful kings reigned supreme, the Bible goes on to tell us that this could never work very well. Even Solomon, in all of his renowned wisdom, erred, exceeded his power and was punished by God.

In fact, all recorded human history tells us this same story—the difficult struggles of populations, ordinary people, individuals, citizens to structure their society to protect against abuses of power by their ruler or by the state, the central question being how to disperse power, to limit it, to neutralise it from being exercised by, or through, any one single person and their capricious whim. History teaches us that it was the British who, from Magna Carta through to a brutal civil war, finally established the supremacy of the people through parliament and who first devised then refined and almost perfected the notion of limited government through constitutional monarchy. This legacy of representative parliamentary democracy, governed by a monarch, limited by constitution and the rule of laws, was brought to Australia by British settlers and strengthened by the founding fathers in our own Australian Constitution.

Constitutional monarchy is rightly the inheritance of every single Australian. And what a success it has been. Like in the United Kingdom, constitutional monarchy has given Australia unprecedented freedom, political stability and the means of managing crises that have seen other modern political systems break and their societies dissolve. In just our short time in the history of the world, we have paradoxically become one of the oldest continuous democratic societies in the world today. By limiting the power of our of head of state, our Queen or King, by strictly defining the use and limitations of their power, we've answered well that central question of good political structure that has plagued so many and continues to confront so many societies today.

In Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II we have the exemplar of the success of our model of government, a queen who perfectly understood her role in our Constitution and did her duty every single second of every single hour of every single day of her 70-year reign, the second-longest reign of a monarch in all human history, a sovereign who held absolute power under our Constitution for all of that time but never wielded it or sought to wield it, except under the strictly agreed terms as defined between the ruler and the ruled. For Australia, she so elegantly represented our nation and was loved by us, and in return loved us as a people—the first and only reigning monarch to visit Australia, who went on to visit us 16 times.

It is astonishing to think of the debt that we owe our Queen. This amazing woman served as our sovereign, perfectly, for 70 years. Never once did she express an opinion outside of her role, nor breach her duty, nor give us cause for concern. And, in a modern world, with tabloids, paparazzi, the loss of privacy, this is a truly remarkable thing. Her sacrifice of her individuality her entire life to serve us is a perfect service that will forever dominate our nation's destiny.

So, to those here who say we should use this moment to consider changing our system, I say this: our free, democratic, safe and successful society is no accident. Proper political structure matters, and constitutional monarchy remains one of the best-ever devised protections against abuses of power, and we should not change it.

Meeting Her Majesty just once, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, was the greatest privilege of my lifetime, as it was for every Australian who had that chance, as was the chance to serve in Her Majesty's Australian armed forces, and as a minister in Her Majesty's Australian government. She was a queen, as she believed, who was anointed by God and whose reign has now been ended by God. So, in thanking and farewelling this remarkable woman, we turn from the Book of Kings to the Gospel of Matthew to say: 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, Queen of Australia and its people, and the queen of our hearts.

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